Michele Carugno

I attended the University of Milan, Italy (UNIMI) Medical School, from which I graduated in 2008. My Residency in Occupational Medicine (UNIMI - 2014) allowed me to deepen my knowledge in Preventive Medicine, Biostatistics, and Epidemiology, in which I gained further expertise through different post-graduate training programs (some of which held by internationally renowned institutions) as well as during my Ph.D. in Epidemiology, Environment and Public Health (UNIMI - 2016). Between 2014 and 2017 I worked at the Dept. of Clinical Sciences and Community Health (DISCCO) of UNIMI as a Research Fellow and, between 2017 and 2018, at the Labour Administration, Labour Inspection and Occupational Safety and Health Branch (LABADMIN/OSH) of the International Labour Organization (ILO - Geneva, Switzerland), first as an Intern in Occupational Health and subsequently as an Occupational Safety and Health Technical Officer. In 2018 I came back to DISCCO - UNIMI, first as an Assistant Professor and, since 2021, as an Associate Professor in Occupational Medicine, in formal agreement with the Occupational Health Unit - Epidemiology Unit of the Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy. My main research focuses on the effects of occupational and environmental exposures in workers, the general population, and susceptible subgroups (e.g., children, subjects affected by obesity), with a particular focus on mechanistic aspects (molecular and epigenetic markers). I am conducting studies on the role of air pollution in influencing psychiatric diseases (in particular, major depressive disorder) and implementing a project aimed to characterize and identify molecular alterations associated with risk factors for lumbar disc herniation. Since 2020, I have been involved in projects investigating the characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 infection among healthcare workers and the general population and I coordinated an analysis to evaluate potential associations between air pollution and COVID-19. In the recent past, I have studied the potential effects (and related mechanisms) of night shift work, the influence of hormonal therapies on the risk of lung cancer in women (EAGLE and ILCCO studies) as well as the role of psychosocial factors on the risk of musculoskeletal disorders in different working populations recruited in the CUPID study. I then developed an expertise on the methods of health impact assessment of environmental exposures, with a particular emphasis on air pollution and noise. In 2020, I joined the Network on the Coordination and Harmonisation of European Occupational Cohorts (OMEGA-NET) and the Global Burden of Disease Collaborators. Up to 2022, I kept collaborating with the ILO for the revision and finalization of the “Guidance notes for diagnosis and prevention of the diseases in the ILO list of occupational diseases (revised 2010)”, currently published. Since 2018, I have been teaching courses in Occupational Medicine and Environmental Epidemiology in Medical Schools, Master, and Postgraduate Programs in UNIMI. Since 2019, I have been granted six research projects (funded by UNIMI, CARIPLO Foundation, Italian Ministry of Health, Italian Ministry of University and Research) for a total funding of about 600,000 €, with the role of either principal investigator, coordinator, or referent of a partner unit. In June 2023, I have been awarded the “Antonio Feltrinelli Giovani” prize for Epidemiology from the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. I authored 62 research papers published in indexed scientific journals (total number of citations: 2,174; average number of citations per publication: 35.1; H-index: 25) and three book chapters. I am member of the Italian Association of Epidemiology (AIE, for which I was elected in the Board of Directors in April 2023), the Italian Society of Occupational Medicine (SIML), the Scientific Committee on Epidemiology in Occupational Health (EPICOH), and the International Society of Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE)